Brian Sumers

It can take some airlines as long as a decade after a merger before they truly operate as one entity. But Alaska Airlines is working much faster to gobble up Virgin America. Part of that is because both carriers were relatively small. But by any standard, Alaska is moving quickly.

American Airlines President Robert Isom said customer satisfaction may be declining because the airline has not been as reliable as it should be. Is that the entire problem?

We know first class is on the way out on routes between the biggest business cities. But do travelers want a better-than-business option at a reasonable price?

Asian airlines still cling to first class, but is the product necessary anymore? Some carriers are rethinking their strategies.

By adding a new premium-heavy configuration, United Airlines will be increasing operational complexity. It is hoping it can offset that with increased revenue. Will the plan work?

United President Scott Kirby and Chief Commericial Officer Andrew Nocella, who worked together at US Airways and American Airlines, deserve credit for the airline's turnaround. Then again, when they arrived United was a broken company, so there was probably only one way to go — up.

Delta is losing about $25 million in revenue this month because of the partial government shutdown. For such a big company, that's not a big number. But clearly Delta would like the government to reopen, and executives spent a good portion of their earnings call discussing it.

Today, United's rationale makes sense. Premium demand in many markets is robust, and United could probably make more money with more seats to sell. But what happens if business class demand drops at some point?

Will JetBlue expand to Europe? It's not clear. There are some strong reasons for, and some strong reasons against. The good news: The airline plans to share its decision at some point this year.

We always hear airlines are a scale business. So can an airline with 30 airplanes and a measured growth plan succeed? We're not sure, but we'll be watching.